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ACO PAGER™ Message Alert System

Managing the complexities of today's operating systems, business applications, and networks challenges even the most knowledgeable IT professionals. ACO PAGER™ is proven technology capable of processing thousands of mission-critical events daily. The software is pre-configured, easy to install, and greatly improves staff efficiency.

ACO PAGER™ Message Alert System earns IBM's "Ready for Power Systems" validation. Learn more about this IBM validation and what it means to your business.

The power of IBM DB2® (included in i5/OS and/or IBM i) middleware is utilized extensively to support all product features and system integration components.

• Executive Summary
• Product Features
  • Pre-configured for easy setup and use
  • Message queue and system history monitors
    • System, user, workstation messages
    • Notification options
    • Multiple message action and routing options
    • Threshold and dependent messaging
    • Two-way messaging
    • Restricted-state monitoring
    • Integrated with IBM's Operations Navigator®
    • Integrates with IBM Tivoli® Monitoring and IBM Tivoli® Netcool/OMNIbus
  • Message escalation (RePage) monitor
  • Job/System event monitors
  • TCP/IP network monitor (PING)
  • Unattended Operations Monitor
  • Security Audit Monitor
  • System Health Monitor
  • Centralized messaging with ACO NET™
  • Miscellaneous features
• Who uses it?
• What are the benefits?
• How does it work?
  • Message Queue Monitor
  • Workstation paging
• Design characteristics
• What is required to use it?
  • Hardware requirements
  • Software requirements
  • Recommended modems
  • Service provider compatibility
• Order your FREE 30-day trial

ACO PAGER™ MANAGES your System i 24-hours a day and notifies you immediately when problems occur. ACO PAGER™ is a complete systems management solution for the IBM System i® midrange computer system that monitors System i message queues (including QHST), job queues, output queues, spool files, libraries, configuration objects/devices, IFS objects, active jobs, System i email, TCP/IP network devices, and much more. Specifically, it is designed to assist with automated computer operations by providing sophisticated message control, filtering, routing, auto-reply and notification facilities in response to System i® system/application events. However, ACO PAGER™ doesn’t just simply react to System i events; it proactively keeps a watchful eye on any system/application object you consider important and takes corrective action when (or before) failures occur. ACO PAGER™ even performs internal system health functions that ensure high system availability.

ACO PAGER™ ENHANCES your system operations by initiating consistently accurate response and notification procedures while remaining virtually transparent to operations personnel. Only critical messages are forwarded to the system operator message queue. Most status and informational messages can be filtered by the Message Monitor, significantly reducing the volume of messages requiring operator intervention. There are no new programs for the operations staff to learn since normal i5/OS message facilities are used.

ACO PAGER™ IMPROVES personnel and data center productivity to ensure fast and efficient message response when your System i® needs assistance. Actual system generated text messages are sent immediately to specific individuals (or groups of individuals) responsible for managing the event via nationwide (or regional) messaging services. Sends delayed messages, broadcast messages, and determines the "on duty" individual or group to be paged based on assigned work schedules. Use the software’s "built-in" two-way messaging agent and virtually any two-way capable device (e.g. cellular phone, pager, Smartphone, e-mail client, or web browser) to receive and respond to System i® events. Utilizing ACO PAGER™ advanced monitoring, alert, and escalation facilities, your personnel simply cannot miss messages that your installation considers significant.

ACO PAGER™ is EASY to install and is pre-configured to monitor your system out-of-the-box. Many of the software's advanced monitoring features are ready for your system to use once you install and start the monitors. Unlike other solutions, ACO PAGER™ does not require your personnel to acquire detailed product knowledge in order to take advantage of the software's advanced monitoring capabilities. In fact, most installations are up and running (utilizing the basic system/application monitoring facilities) within the same business day.

ACO PAGER™ is SCALABLE and can be easily integrated with sophisticated enterprise systems like IBM Tivoli® Monitoring or IBM Tivoli® Netcool/OMNIbus (requires ACO Enterprise System Interface™ not included). Whether your firm manages one System i (or an entire network of System i machines/partitions) ACO’s software agents/probes provide efficient "bi-directional" event management and control information to (and from) your enterprise system. These automation products will help your firm dynamically monitor and control mission critical resources and machine availability on all of your System i systems within your heterogeneous platform data center.

ACO PAGER™ is PROVEN technology capable of processing thousands of mission-critical events daily. Managing the complexities of today's operating systems, business applications, and networks challenges even the most knowledgeable IT professionals. The cost to an enterprise of unplanned downtime, loss of human expertise during sick leave or vacation, and system/application or environmental failure can be devastating. ACO PAGER™ makes increasing use of your existing expertise to avoid these situations. No other system lets you manage your System i with the same depth of automation, consistency, accuracy, and convenience as the ACO PAGER™ Message Alert System.

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ACO PAGER™ is a message based application system; the same method used by i5/OS® to communicate between programs. Many product features (e.g. Message Queue, Job Event and Network Monitors) create both internal and external message events that can trigger the software to perform your user-defined instructions (e.g. message routing, auto-reply, filtering, paging etc.). With ACO PAGER™ virtually any event (regardless of its source) can be efficiently managed. Listed below are just some of the products features:

ACO PAGER™ monitors your system out-of-the-box. Many of the software's advanced monitoring features are ready for your system to use once you install and start the monitors. Unlike other solutions, ACO PAGER™ does not require your personnel to acquire detailed product knowledge in order to take advantage of the software's advanced monitoring capabilities. However, even if you do have a special monitoring requirement, our FREE SupportLine services are available 24/7 to assist you with the setup. In addition, a wealth of product information is available on our customer area web site and is accessible to all SupportLine customers -- yes, even during the trial period.

• Message queue monitors are started for QHST, QSYSMSG, QSYSOPR, and QTCP message queues. ACO PAGER™ notifies you of any severity 80 (or higher) message sent to the above message queues

• Escalation monitors notify you if messages have not been replied to within a user defined interval

• Escalation, Network, Two-Way, and TCP/IP monitors are automatically started.

• Pager definitions for all major messaging and paging services

• Standard messages for sending impromptu messages via the ACOPAGE command

• Events to monitor performance, job queues, output queues, spool files, IFS objects, library/file objects, SMTP subsystem monitors and more

• Monitors QBATCH job queue and notifies you if the number of jobs on the queue exceeds a threshold of 20

• Monitors QEZJOBLOG output queue and notifies you if there are spool files older than 30 days

• Monitors QHST files (via the IFS directory event monitor) and notifies you of QHST files older than 30 days

• Event monitors check system health and perform "heart-beat" activities; including status of all ACO monitors and communication objects

• Monitors the system backup job (QEZBACKUP) and notifies you if the job does not start or end by the time specified

• Advanced paging schedules (and work shifts) are setup for the OPERATORS group call list which notifies your personnel based on the system date, time-of-day, and group member priority

• Purges internal message history older than ten (10) days

• ACO ESI™ messaging agents, probes, and gateways (if installed) are automatically started to communicate with your enterprise system (e.g. IBM Tivoli® Monitoring or IBM Netcool/OMNIbus®)

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Most messages sent from a job on the System i are informational, diagnostic or completion type and serve to communicate the job's current execution status. These messages do not require response and will not delay job execution. However, inquiry messages do interrupt normal processing and left unattended, may cause several delays and hinder the use of critical resources for long periods of time. With ACO PAGER™, your system can perform pro-actively against these system/application events with specific response and notification procedures.

Monitors any system, user, or workstation message queue (including QHST), job queue, active job, System i email, TCP/IP network, and performs the following user defined actions based on the specific/generic message id and/or message text received:

• Message filtering

• Automatic message replies

• Processes two-way message replies and commands

• Message routing and forwarding to message queues, pagers, cellular phones, Smartphones, MIME compatible e-mail systems, and enterprise systems like IBM Tivoli® Monitoring or IBM Netcool/OMNIbus®

• Message paging (immediate or delayed) via numeric/alphanumeric pagers, Laptop/Palmtop computers, cellular phones, or telephones

• Performs message threshold and/or dependent messaging functions

• Runs a user-defined command, program, or automation script

• Integrates your System i with IBM Tivoli® Monitoring or IBM Netcool/OMNIbus® enterprise systems. Performs messaging and command/ control automation functions via the ACO Enterprise System Interface™

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Don't let network problems flood your system operators with duplicate network failure messages. Instruct the Message Monitor to perform different user-defined actions based on the frequency of a specific message or the receipt of a dependent message received (in the monitored message queue) within a user-defined time duration.

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Whether you're temporarily away from your System i or attending an offsite function, you can use ACO PAGER™'s two-way messaging feature to remotely manage your system. This feature uses the capabilities of two-way pagers and digital cellular phones equipped with two-way messaging capabilities to receive and respond to System i® system/application messages.

• Sends system/application messages to your two-way device

• Processes reply messages and commands sent from your two-way device

• Sends two-way acknowledgment messages to confirm that your instructions have been successfully executed

• Works with any two-way messaging device or your e-mail client (e.g. Outlook, Groupwise, etc.) to remotely manage your system

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You need to perform system backups and other maintenance functions while the System i is in a restricted-state. With ACO PAGER™ you can monitor the QSYSOPR message queue and perform message routing, run commands/programs, send automatic replies, and perform notification functions. In addition, this feature works in conjunction with the ACO Unattended Operations Monitor.

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Operations Navigator is a Windows® like graphical interface that you can use to perform System i® system administration tasks. This interface is quickly becoming the standard tool to access the System i. ACO PAGER™ uses message queues and standard i5/OS commands to manage the system -- seamlessly integrating  Operations Navigator functions in order to provide a complete systems management solution for your System i.

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Managing the complexities of multi-platform data centers is an increasingly challenging task. ACO PAGER™ is fully integrated with the ACO Enterprise System Interface™ which provides "closed loop" automation services to System i when connected to enterprise systems like IBM Tivoli® Monitoring or IBM Tivoli® Netcool/OMNIbus. When a message (or event) is sent to a monitored message queue, the ACO ESI™ messaging agents/probes forward the event to the enterprise system. Based on the automation script logic, the ACO ESI™ gateways facilitate the execution of automatic message replies and user-defined commands back to the System i. In addition, ACO ESI™ sends acknowledgment messages to inform the enterprise system of their completion status -- all with split second precision.

The ACO Enterprise System Interface™, IBM's Tivoli® Monitoring, and IBM Tivoli® Netcool/OMNIbus enterprise systems are available at an additional cost (from our business partners) and are not included with the ACO PAGER™ Message Alert System or the ACO Enterprise System Interface™ software products.

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You simply cannot miss messages with ACO PAGER™. The RePage Monitor allows paging (and other messaging functions) to be performed repetitively for messages that have NOT been replied to by a specific time in a monitored message queue. The RePage Monitor (ACOREPAGE) will re-send messages (based upon a user defined time period) to an individual or the next person in the group (if a group call list id was specified) if any inquiry messages go unanswered.

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Are you interested in proactively managing your system? Would you like to know if a particular job is consuming excess CPU. Do you have a job that absolutely must run between the hours of 3:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. Or, maybe you would like to monitor the size of library, file, or IFS objects? Virtually any system object can be monitored with the ACO Job Event Monitor. Enter the job/system events that you want to interrogate. The event monitor(s) keep a watchful eye and forward the results to a user-defined message queue (e.g. QSYSOPR). Once received at the monitored message queue, any user-defined action can be performed in order to take corrective action.

The ACO Job Event Monitor is an extremely powerful feature that can be setup to:

• Monitor for job start/completion messages. Notify your personnel if these messages have not been received by a specific time

• Monitors the status of the Work with Active Jobs display and notifies you if interactive jobs, batch jobs, subsystem monitors, or system jobs are consuming excess CPU, have poor response time, have their priority set too low, or are running with an incorrect status or function

• Monitors any communications configuration device on the Work with Configuration Status display (e.g. lines, control units, device descriptions, and network interfaces) and notifies you when they are set to an incorrect status

• Monitors basic system performance and disk utilization status  (e.g. CPU% used, Auxiliary Storage % used, number of jobs in the system, number of users signed on, number of jobs waiting for messages, number of jobs running, number of jobs running on hold, number of jobs waiting to run, number of jobs held on job queues, number of jobs on a held queue) and notifies you when the current values exceed your user-defined thresholds

• Monitors the number of jobs on Job and Output queues and notifies you when their current values exceed your user-defined thresholds or are set to an incorrect status. Optionally move, delete, or change the attributes of jobs remaining on the job queue

• Monitors spool files and optionally deletes, moves, or copies objects to another output queue. Scan spool file objects for specific message id's, text strings, or keywords

• Monitor library, file, and Integrated File System (IFS) objects. Optionally delete, move, or copy objects to another directory

• Send "heart-beat" messages to the ACO Enterprise System Interface™ (and subsequently to an enterprise system (like IBM Tivoli® Monitoring or IBM Tivoli® Netcool/OMNIbus

• Reports event status in or outside their normal run time

• Ability to define job exclusions to eliminate certain jobs from being included in the job event monitor selection logic

• All monitored events are user-defined and the event monitor can be set to interrogate each event based on a specific day-of-week and/or time-of-day

• All monitors were written using i5/OS API's for performance reasons

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Use the TCP/IP Monitor to detect the up/down status of devices connected to your TCP/IP network. If your System i is connected to the Internet, you can detect the status of virtually any device in the world. "No response from host" event messages are immediately sent if network hosts cannot be located on the network.

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Like a job scheduler the ACO Unattended Operations Monitor executes your commands and application programs based on your user-defined entries. However, unlike IBM's job scheduler, this scheduling engine can perform even while the system is in a restricted state. Use this monitor during restricted or non-restricted state processing to perform "lights-out" operations.

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The ACO Security Audit Monitor manages all security related events logged to the System i security journal (QSYS/QAUDJRN). All monitored security events can trigger alert notification, command and control processing, and are logged to an internal history file. The detailed history can then be utilized to generate reports which track all System i object level security changes on the system. This monitor provides relevant System i security audit information to assist with your firms Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance requirements.

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The System Health Monitor keeps the ACO software agents running smoothly by performing automatic internal system maintenance functions on regular user-defined intervals. It also is capable of sending "heart-beat" messages to your enterprise system (e.g. IBM Tivoli® Monitoring or IBM Tivoli® Netcool/OMNIbus) or your two-way device to ensure all systems management functions are working correctly.

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If you have multiple System i systems and want to centralize paging (and other messaging) functions on a target machine you need ACO NET™. With ACO NET™ you only need to configure the paging hardware on one machine. All source machines send their paging requests to the target for processing. This feature reduces complexity, minimizes cost, and provides for easier system maintenance.

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• Help desk staff

• System operators/System technicians

• Data center managers and analysts

• Sales and delivery professionals

Help desk staff use ACO PAGER™ for problem management of key business applications. The system provides valuable historical information for all messages received at a monitored message queue, as well as, tracks message replies, user-defined action, and impromptu pager messages. Help desk personnel can also use the ACOPAGE command to send wireless messages to the appropriate technical personnel to communicate critical events.

System operators/system technicians use ACO PAGER™ for system/application troubleshooting based on specific/generic messages received at a monitored message queue. The system sends wireless messages to specific "on-duty" individuals or groups of individuals responsible for handling the event and continues to notify the next person in the group if any message goes unanswered. ACO PAGER™ significantly reduces the volume of messages sent to operator message queue by using basic user-defined filtering techniques. Only critical messages are sent and processed by your operations staff; eliminating the tedious process of sifting through numerous informational or warning messages.

Data center managers and analysts use ACO PAGER™ to oversee the data center operations and operations personnel. Analysts use valuable historical information to assist with problem management activities. Real-time message response and operator action information can be easily manipulated for detailed analysis and trend identification.

Sales and delivery professionals use ACO PAGER™ to communicate with support personnel while in or away from the office. Use the ACOPAGE command to send impromptu messages, e-mail, and electronic updates notifying your personnel of important meetings, "to-do" lists, and schedule changes.

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The cost to an enterprise of unplanned downtime, loss of human expertise during sick leave or vacation, and system/application or environmental failure can be devastating. ACO PAGER™ makes increasing use of your existing expertise to avoid these situations. ACO PAGER™ notifies appropriate personnel of system events and initiates consistent responsive actions to solve complex problems before they reach critical status.

• Faster identification and resolution of problems

• Increased IT staff and data center productivity

• Improved customer service

• Enhanced problem solving information

• Reduced console traffic equals cost savings

• Improved business communications

Faster Problem Identification and Resolution
How many times have you walked in the data center at the start of the day to find a critical production or system backup job waiting on a message? ACO PAGER™ works around-the-clock and responds immediately when your System i needs assistance. ACO PAGER™ notifies the appropriate "on-duty" personnel responsible for managing the event and continues to page the next person in the group if any messages go unanswered. With ACO PAGER™ you can be assured of automatic alerting of "off-site" staff, ensuring the problem is corrected long before your end-users require use of the system.

Increased IT Staff and Data Center Productivity.
Have you ever missed valuable messages due to heavy console message traffic? Has your operator inadvertently keyed the wrong response, resulting in either a financial loss, outage, or recovery situation? Utilizing ACO PAGER™ advanced monitoring and alert facilities, your support team simply cannot miss messages that your installation considers significant. ACO PAGER™ can reduce your IT staff's workload by responding automatically or executing a user-defined command/program that minimizes the margin of error and resulting system problems. It all adds up to dollar savings for your organization.

Improved Customer Service
Are you ever notified of a problem by an irate customer or end-user? ACO PAGER™ allows the data center manager to proactively service end-users, thereby improving the perceived service levels in the field. The system can alert end-users of host resource outages, eliminating those embarrassing phone calls.

Enhanced Problem Solving Information
Is your environment so complex that you cannot get a comprehensive picture of what happened during problem resolution and who did what to solve the problem? Can you audit your operations staff with complete information? ACO PAGER™ provides real-time message sender and response information and archives these transactions so you can track how the problem was resolved.

Reduced Message Console Traffic Equals Cost Savings
Have you ever tried to find an important message while being bombarded with useless informational detail like that produced when a token-ring line fails? ACO PAGER™'s filtering capabilities allow you to control what you want to see. Only critical messages requiring manual intervention can be sent to your operations staff; eliminating the tedious process of sifting through numerous informational or warning messages.

Messages can also be forwarded to specific users or workstations, ensuring that the right person is notified of the event. By controlling the individual disposition of all monitored messages, ACO PAGER™ alleviates potential confusion over message responsibility; freeing the operations staff to work on other critical tasks. As a result, problems can be located and addressed when they occur, contributing greatly to overall system availability, operations staff productivity, and cost savings.

Improved Business Communications
Have you ever tried to inform off-site sales or delivery personnel of schedule changes or new customer demands? Use the ACOPAGE command to send impromptu messages, e-mail, and electronic updates immediately notifying your off-site personnel of important information using regional or nationwide paging services. Management, sales, and other critical business professionals can be reached anytime, anywhere your business needs them the most.

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Most messages sent from a job on the System i are informational, diagnostic or completion type and serve to communicate the job's current execution status. These messages do not require response and will not delay job execution. However, inquiry messages do interrupt normal processing and left unattended, may cause several delays and hinder the use of critical resources for long periods of time. With the ACO PAGER™ your system can perform pro-actively against these system/application events with specific response and notification procedures.

ACO PAGER™ monitors the your System i system/user message queues (e.g. QSYSOPR) and uses a message action file to determine the appropriate action to be performed. You setup the message queues (see Figure 1) in the message queue maintenance panel shown below.

Now, setup the user-defined actions (see Figure 2) based on the System i specific or generic message id and job information and start the Message Monitor. When a message is sent to a monitored message queue, ACO PAGER™ performs your detailed instructions.

Job sender information can be used to define multiple action records (with a specific sequence number) for a single message id and is used to determine whether this message action sequence matches the message received by the Message Monitor. The job sender parameters that can be specified by message id include job name, job user, job number, job program, job statement, job date, severity, and message compare string.

The message id and job sender information received by the Message Monitor are matched against the message action file in ascending sequence number order. The search ends when a match occurs or the last action record for the specific or generic message id is passed.

• Forward the message to a system, user, workstation message queue, MIME compatible email system, or to another System i system in your network

• Automatically reply to inquiry messages

• Filter-out unwanted messages

• Page an individual or group of individuals via numeric/alphanumeric pagers, cellular phones, and/or telephones

• Run a user-defined command or action script

• Forward the message to an enterprise system like IBM Tivoli® Monitoring or IBM Tivoli® Netcool/OMNIbus

Use the ACOPAGE command to automatically send alphanumeric wireless messages from any workstation or application program. Individual or group paging can be performed by entering a specific pager or group identifier. The ACOPAGE command can be used by multiple users to send numeric only, impromptu text, or standard text messages. The ACOPAGE command panel is shown below:

1. Execute the ACOPAGE command by entering ACOPAGE, then press <Enter> on the System i command line.

2. Position the cursor on the pager id field and use the <F4> function key to select a valid pager or group id from a list window.

3. Position the cursor on the message text field and key the message text you want to send to the pager’s display and press <Enter>.

Use the ACOPAGE command to send pager messages directly from your application programs in response to special program conditions and/or events. You can easily include this command in your programs to send alphanumeric text messages in response to exception errors or other events that require user intervention and/or notification.

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ACO PAGER™ is an integrated software application that was specifically written for the System i midrange computer using native high level programming languages, standard communications protocols, and relational database. ACO PAGER™ was designed to have minimal impact on the performance of your System i. ACO PAGER™ passes control information and communicates between program modules using program messages and application programmer interfaces; the same method used by the System i operating system to communicate between programs. In addition, all major message processing functions execute within the batch environment which provides for efficient execution and utilization of system resources. In fact, in most installations, the Message Monitor typically uses less than .1% of CPU resources during normal message processing.

• User interface has the same "look and feel" of standard i5/OS commands

• Operates as a native business application

• Uses standard programming languages and communication protocols

• Communicates between modules using program messages and API's

• SAA compliant

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As with most System i installations, you probably already have what is required to use the ACO PAGER™ Message Alert System. You need a System i (or AS/400) with the following:

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• IBM 5853 external modem
• IBM 7852-400/MultiTech MT5600BA external modem
• IBM 27xx/2805/576C internal modem
• US Robotics 56 Kbps external modem

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• All numeric only protocols

• Service must support the industry standard TAP protocol (modem paging only)

• Service must support e-mail or text messaging

• Service must support two-way messaging in order to use two-way devices and ACO Two-Way Messaging features.

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